Thomas Gray is an artist, filmmaker and founder of The Gray Circle. Based in Milton Keynes, Thomas has been creating large-scale, socially engaging and interactive installations and environments for over 25 years. His artworks, called Lightscapes, incorporate light, colour, sound and moving image, and are often designed to transform particular spaces and contexts into evolving aesthetic experiences for viewers. Research based, he often starts with sourcing archive and found materials which are then mixed with contemporary cinematic imagery and interviews to create evocative, time-based compositions. Thomas is also a founder member of Grid Arts: an MK-based artist collective that specialise in multidisciplinary community engagement projects.

Thomas’ artwork for ROCLA – Bird Walk Electric Dreams

The broad variety of birds at our neighbour Linford Lakes Nature Reserve as well as in the natural woodlands of Redhouse Park, were inspiration for Thomas Gray the artist commissioned for this exciting community project Bird Walk Electric Dreams. Guided by Thomas, residents have created fabulous birdlike sculptures that perch high in the trees in Hopcrofts Meadow; these fanciful sculptures shyly blend with the foliage by day but at night come alive illuminated showing their true colours of electric plumage. Thomas was further inspired by a custom in Chinese cities where people take their caged songbirds to the park and hang them in the trees; this is called Walking the Bird or Bird Walk. The ROCLA Art Project is very grateful to Niftylift Limited for providing a boom lift on the installation day.